Currently, hospitals and other medical facilities stock syringes for intramuscular injections. The syringe assembly typically includes a vial or cartridge which is open-ended at one end, a hand-operable plunger which is received into the cartridge at the open end, and a needle or "sharp" subassembly. The needle subassembly typically includes the thin, elongate, hollow bore needle secured in a fluid-tight fashion to a base. The needle subassembly may be provided separately from the cartridge. The needle base can be attached to a fluid port at the end of the cartridge opposite its open end. In that regard, it is of growing importance that the needle subassembly attach to the cartridge with a positive locking feature to prevent its disengagement from the cartridge during or after use in the patient, for example, as the needle is withdrawn from the patient. At this time the needle is contaminated and should not be handled directly by the nurse, doctor, or others. While a friction fit has been employed to attach the needle subassembly to the cartridge, more preferably a positive lock such as a Luer Lock (trademark) threaded connection or the like is required.
Many hospitals and other medical facilities also now stock so-called blunt injectors. Blunt injectors employ a cartridge fitted with a hand-operable plunger and a blunt-ended injection tip. The injection tip is elongate, although typically much shorter than a standard syringe needle. It is adapted to be inserted into a self-sealing injection port at a Y-fitting in an intravenous line. An intravenous line extending from a needle which is semi-permanently installed in the patient for delivering medication, saline, etc. has a Y-fitting at some distance from the needle to present an auxiliary injection site. The blunt injector is inserted through a self-sealing membrane at such auxiliary injection site. The self-sealing membrane is slit or otherwise adapted to receive the blunt injector tip. Since a sharp needle is not needed for such injections, a blunt injector tip is used to enhance the safety of the medication administrator.
It is a significant cost burden that hospitals and other medical facilities must maintain a stock supply of both needle syringe injectors and blunt injectors. This duplicate stocking of two different types of injector assemblies involves not only undesirably high inventory costs, but also larger than desirable storage space requirements. Moreover, injection assembly cartridges often are stocked pre-filled with medication. In those cases, the cost of the medication may greatly exceed the cost of the injector assembly. Hence, redundant stocking of both blunt and sharp injector assemblies involves even much greater inventory costs. It is an object of the invention to reduce the inventory redundancy of stocking of both blunt and sharp injector assemblies. Additional objects of the invention will become apparent from the following disclosure of the invention and detailed discussion of certain preferred embodiments.